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>> US stocks tumbled Thursday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down as much as 600 points in mid-day trading, an abrupt reversal just a day after an historic 1,000-point surge. Data Hub Thursday showed US consumer confidence in December fell to its lowest level since July. The tech-heavy Nasdaq was dragged down more than 3% as investors dumped shares of Amazon, which at one point fell 5%.

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Other losers included Apple and Microsoft, down about 4%. Netflix and Google parent, Alphabet, were also down. Tech firms led a bull market climb for much of the year, and are now among the biggest albatrosses around the necks of investors who bought when the shares were up. Another possible reason for the sell-off, a Reuters report Thursday that the White House is considering a national security order barring US companies from purchasing hardware from Chinese tech firms Huawei and ZTE.

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Such a ban could upend sensitive US-China trade talks, threatening to escalate a tariff war between the world's two biggest economies. The S&P 500 was off over 2% Thursday, led by heavy losses for energy firms. Those companies were undercut by a drop in crude oil, falling amid a supply glut and lower forecasts for economic growth.